7-11 B'fast, Cafe, Kuromon Market, Shinseikai, Tempura Lunch (2009-03-31)
There're two restaurants--one western, another Japanese-- on the ground floor of Hearton Hotel that offer breakfast. We wanted neither, so we walked across the alley to find food in 7-11. I chose instant noodles while KL had onigiri (rice balls).
As we arrived at Kuromon Market to meet with Serlina and David, most
of the shops weren't open yet, so we killed some time at a cafe.
Kuromon Market is said to be the Kitchen of Osaka with most of the
shops selling seafood. Puffer fish seems to be a popular fish for
sale there. We saw scallops literally the size of my palm and
easily two inches thick, I've never seen monstrous scallops like
that. David had always wanted to try otoro sushi/sashimi which is
the FATTEST part of the tuna. We found a seafood shop there
selling otoro which also has a small eat-in section, perfect for him to
sample it. The otoro
was so fatty (and greasy with fish oil) that it appears pale.
Serlina said it's like eating raw pork fat which didn't please
her.
Time was still early when we left Kuromon, so we headed to
Shinseikai, another famous touristy shopping area. When we
stepped out of the station, the main street looked eerily empty and
quiet. Where're all the tourists? Then we saw that most of
the shops were closed! It was their official closing day of the
week! (hint: do not go to Shinseikai on Thurdays) Oh well,
not to be discouraged, we went to Namba, another shopping district
where Serlina and David's hotel was, and looked for lunch and more
shopping for Serlina.
On the 1st floor of Namba City's south building is
Ginza (
) Hageten, a
large tempura chain restaurant. Our lunch sets were cheap and
surprisingly delicious. The tempura was crispy yet light and the
vegetables and seafood were very fresh (their web site says they've
been around for 80 years and they use sesame oil to fry their
food). I liked it so much that
I'm gonna look for their branch in Tokyo next time we feel like having
tempura.
Ginza Hageten Namba 5-1-60, Chuoku, Osaka. Tel: 06-6644-5929
Back to top
